Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

A row erupted over a purported conversation among Lithuanian diplomats that caused a considerable stir in the media.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said the alleged conversation leaked to youtube.com is a provocation aimed against Lithuania and its presidency over the European Union Council.

"It is indeed a provocation against Lithuania and its EU presidency, which is holding the Eastern Partnership summit, and the event will involve one of the countries that was discussed," the president told journalists on August 4.

On July 8, recordings of three phone conversations of Lithuanian diplomats were posted on youtube.com. The two recordings mention Azerbaijan and Armenia, two South Caucasus republics which have been locked in conflict for over two decades.

According to the Lithuanian president, the latest developments are also a lesson and an impetus for the Lithuanian diplomatic service to improve its work.

"I view it as a provocation in the sense that conversations that were not intended for public access went public," she said.

Grybauskaite said the content of the leaked conversations was highly unprofessional.

"I see the conversations as highly unprofessional and a sign of immaturity of the diplomatic service. If there was no such content to begin with, provocations would not be possible. I think it will serve as a good lesson for the entire service to enhance its performance," she added.

The conversations are said to involve deputy director of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry's Eastern Neighborhood Policy Department Zenonas Kumetaitis, Lithuanian Ambassador to Hungary Renatas Juska, Lithuanian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Arturas Zurauskas and Foreign Ministry official Gediminas Kasputis.

During the conversation, the interlocutors reportedly discussed their own point of view about the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, explicitly expressing pro-Armenian position.

All the recordings have English subtitles.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius believes that the posting of phone conversation records of Lithuanian diplomats on the internet is an information provocation, local media reported.

According to Linkevicius, the Foreign Ministry is scrutinizing the incident.

"On Wednesday, I ordered the General Inspection of the Foreign Ministry to scrutinize this incident and I can only regret that cases of information provocations have increased in recent years, therefore, these facts should be thoroughly investigated. What has been publicized has nothing in common with the position of the sate," Linkevicius said.

According to him, the authorities shouldn't ignore such provocations and should thoroughly investigate them.

Delfi news website reported with reference to BNS that Juska and Zurauskas were summoned to the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry.

Asked whether or not letters of resignation of the two ambassadors have been tendered, Foreign Ministry spokesman Race Yakilaytene told BNS that "investigation is currently underway" but did not provide any detailed information.

On August 2, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry confirmed to BNS that it had received a resignation request from Lithuania's Ambassador to Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan's Ambassador to Lithuania Hasan Mammadzade commented that the leaked diplomatic conversations are a provocation against Azerbaijan and Lithuania.

"This is not the official position of Lithuania. Their official position coincides with Azerbaijan's stance. Such cases are merely used to undermine bilateral relations. Time will show whether this fact will affect the bilateral relations or not," Mammadzade said.

According to Mammadzade, the conversation of Lithuanian diplomats on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict does not reflect the official position of Lithuania. As indicated in the documents signed by the presidents of the two countries, the official position of the country calls for a peaceful settlement of the conflict within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, he said.